"There will be no major breakthrough with his trip alone but I believe it will provide a fresh momentum for nuclear disarmament talks."

Kim Yong Hyun, a North Korean professor at Dongguk University of South Korea, saying that former U.S. Bill President Clinton's visit to Pyongyang to free two U.S. journalists may signal warmer relations between the longtime foes

"Democracy might be regarded as desirable during takeoff but in practice it has not proved to be a realistic option for most countries. If we choose to ignore this historical context, we stand guilty of being hypocrites: requiring of others what we did not practice ourselves."

Martin Jacques, a columnist with British newspaper Guardian, in his commentary "Don't Judge China by Our Standards"

"Waiting for the [global financial] crisis to disappear to conclude the Doha Round would mean depriving the world economy of a powerful engine for recovery."

Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization, calling for a swift conclusion to a new world trade pact in an interview with the Indian newspaper Business Standard

"Just as we affirm our endorsement of the option of peace, we maintain our right to resort to legitimate resistance as guaranteed by international law."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in his policy speech at the first General Assembly of the Fatah party in 20 years in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on August 4

"We were under fire from the start. The ayatollahs of the Lisbon Treaty in Brussels and Paris wanted us to fail in order to prove their argument that the rotating EU presidency didn't work and that the EU couldn't function without a new treaty."

Alexandr Vondra, former Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs. The Czech Republic held the EU rotating presidency in the first half of 2009